*U.S. addresses only
Price: $275.00
Edition: 6th/2019
Sku: 19FSWC
ISBN: 978-1-941825-66-2; 1-941825-66-4
Availability: IN-STOCK (released 8/14/2019)
Samples: Table of Contents ------- Text Sample
Format: Softcover book and/or PDF eBook sent on CD or USB stick, or click here for the downloadable version

Written by Eleanor Laws, Federal Sector Workers’ Compensation provides in-depth yet concise analysis of each element required to establish a claim for compensation. The book includes ECAB case law, regulations, and guidance up though early 2019, including recent regulatory changes, and analyzes and explains OWCP regulations, litigation, and processes, as well as FECA guidance.
Individuals involved in all phases of the federal sector workers’ compensation claims adjudication process rely on this text for reporting and instruction on topics including:
- Overview of Federal Employees’ Compensation Act—including administration of the Act and employees covered
- OWCP Claim Procedures—including how to write effective notices of injury and the steps the agency must take upon notification of injury
- Hearings—including how to secure a hearing before an OWCP claims examiner
- Reconsideration—including how to avoid dismissal of a request for reconsideration
- ECAB Appeals—including procedures and scope of review
- Fact of Injury—including what constitutes an injury, traumatic injury and occupational disease and the statement of injury
- Performance of Duty—including on- and off-premises injuries
- Causal Relationship—including medical evidence, factors of employment, and types of casual relationship
- Emotional Conditions—including compensable employment factors and types of emotional conditions
- Continuation of Pay—including eligibility, traumatic injury requirement, notice of injury, and termination of continuation of pay
- Schedule Awards—including schedule award claims, permanent impairments, medical evidence, and payment of schedule awards
- Vocational Rehabilitation and Reemployment—OWCP procedures, services provided, suitable employment, and failure to comply
- Wage Loss Compensation—including computations of pay rate, average annual earnings, wage earning capacity, and augmented compensation for dependents
- Survivors’ Benefits—including computation of benefits, beneficiaries, and death gratuity
- Medical Benefits—including authorization of medical benefits and types of benefits
- Representatives and Attorney Fees—including procedures for requesting fee approval and criteria for approving fees
- Overpayments—including procedures, fact of overpayment, waiver, and recoupment
- Third Party Liability—including OWCP procedures, referral to DOL, and reimbursement
- Relationship Between FECA and Other Laws—including FECA and the ADA and restoration rights
- The 2019 edition includes ECAB case law, regulations, and guidance though early 2019.
- One positive development is the ECAB’s recent approval of attorney fees with hourly rates more in line with the rates routinely approved in other federal administrative forums. Given the historically low rates the ECAB has approved in the past, this is a welcome change. It is also appropriate because even though the OWCP process is technically non-adversarial, it is just as legally complex as other areas of federal sector employment law.
- The most significant update for 2019 is the complete overhaul of Part 6 of the FECA Procedure Manual, which addresses overpayments of compensation. FECA Transmittal No. 18-04 explains: “Part 6, Debt Management, has been revised in its entirety to streamline the overpayment process for ease of use for claims staff and for better understanding for employing agencies, attorneys and other interested parties. This Procedure Manual release completely overhauls the debt management processes, including identifying and calculating an overpayment, making Preliminary and Final Determinations, and liquidating the debt. In keeping with other recent updates to the Procedure Manual, Part 6 has been increased to five chapters, complementing the DFEC’s overall proactive approach to more efficient claims management.” These changes are fully incorporated into Chapter 18, Overpayments.
Also included are a summary and detailed table of contents, a resources section, forms guide, table of cases, and index.
Also available on a CD-ROM as a .pdf file with many useful features. Hyperlinks allow the reader to move quickly between the Table of Contents and Index entries and the corresponding portions of the text. Internal hyperlinks serve as a cross-reference feature within the text, and web links of major cases take users to full text versions available online.
